1976-'77 Lotus Esprit Series 1

Genesis for a high-spirited supercar

Feature Article from Hemmings Motor News

In its first two decades, Lotus earned a sterling reputation in the racing world, one that was enhanced by sophisticated and sprightly road cars like the Elite, the Seven, the Elan and the Europa. Colin Chapman, founder of this English cottage automaker, knew they needed a world-class replacement for the Europa, and they got that replacement in the form of a wedgetastic show car for the road, the original Esprit. This car would be refined and repowered for more than 25 years until it was a blazingly quick, high-strung twin-turbocharged V-8 exotic, but the naturally aspirated four-cylinder Series 1 is the Lotus purist's delight.
This new car was drawn up around a new Lotus-designed engine that would be introduced to Americans under the hoods of Jensen Healey sports cars. The Lotus 907 engine was an all-aluminum four that featured a 95.2 x 62.9mm (3.75 x 2.72 inches) bore and stroke that displaced 1,973cc (120.4-cu.in.) under a dual overhead-cam cylinder head. With the home market twin-choke dual Dell'Orto DHLA 45E carburetors, the engine made 160hp at 6,200 RPM and 140-lbs.ft. of torque at 4,900 RPM. In federalized form, with two smog-friendly single-choke Zenith-Stromberg carburetors, it made 140hp at 6,500 RPM and 130-lbs.ft. of torque at 5,000 RPM.
That engine sat in the middle of a light, strong steel backbone and space-frame chassis that was cloaked in crisply folded glass-fiber-reinforced plastic, the low and speedy design of which came from the pen of Italian master Giorgetto Giugiaro. It was directly descended from his exciting Silver Car concept, shown at the 1972 Turin motor show. Also under that skin were a Citroën-donated five-speed manual transaxle, a fully independent suspension with wishbones and coil springs up front and trailing arms, lateral links and coil-over shocks in the rear, and four-wheel disc brakes with inboard rear discs, hidden behind staggered-width 14-inch Wolfrace alloy wheels. Two fuel tanks, with filler caps on both C-pillars, offered a total of 15 gallons and about 450 miles of range at a surprisingly frugal 30-plus MPG.
By the time the first Esprit was delivered in June 1976, the car had gained a bit of weight (U.S. versions outweighed the factory-stated 1,980-pound figure by a couple hundred ell-bees, courtesy of our safety and emissions regulations), and car magazines couldn't duplicate the promised 6.8-second 0-60 time or 138 MPH top speed. But even at a second and 10 MPH off that pace, the 718 Series 1 Esprits built between 1976 and 1978 made for cracking sports cars that, thanks to their legendary Lotus lightness and handling agility, could run rings around cars with twice their cylinder count. Even as a turbo boosted its performance to Ferrari levels, the Esprit maintained its scrappy underdog persona until it doubled its own cylinder count in 1996, and drove off into its final sunset in 2004.

This article originally appeared in the October, 2012 issue of Hemmings Motor News.